January 23, 2010

The temperature has improved and is now in the low 40s but the days are short and the nights are long. Off to another Friday night treadmill run at the gym yesterday. My 1st treadmill 10K time trial a couple of weeks ago was at 58:45. Last night’s run was a slight improvement by 10 seconds at 58:35. Goal this year is to get it down to below 54:00. Still a long way to go.

January 19, 2010

On Sunday, January 17, Deena Kastor won the P. F. Chang’s Rock ‘n Roll Arizona Half Marathon in a time of 1:09:43. No woman competitor was even close to her with the 2nd place finisher clocking in at over 1:17. Here is a video of her race. It covers most of her miles. You can see that she is quite an efficient and strong runner when the camera does close-ups of her running style.

January 9, 2010

It took 8 days before I finally ran this year. I did 10K in the treadmill in 58:45. But, boy was I huffing and puffing during the last mile. In hindsight, I should have eased into the new year and started with a moderate paced 5K. It feels good to be running again after only having run once in a span of 28 days.

January 7, 2010

I just checked the New York Road Runners website. I got in through the lottery for the New York City Half Marathon to be held on March 21, 2009. Training starts on January 7, 2010. this will be my first training run of the year.

Since this will be right at the end of winter and the start of the racing season, I am targeting a relatively slower goal time of 2:15 for this race.

I’m excited that I got through the lottery. The next step now is to design the 2010 racing schedule.

January 6, 2010

Here is my New Year’s resolution starting January 5, 2010 to January 4, 2011. I am either going to do at least one of three things each day for the next 365 days:

1. Run at least 1.6 kilometers.

2. Bike at least 6.8 kilometers.

3. Swim at least 150 meters.

Those are equivalent to the triathlon ratios of run, bike, and swim. One may ask why the distances are so short. I figure that with these relatively short distances, even if I am tired or injured, I can accomplish at least one of the three. Also, there are going to be days right after a marathon where you need to relax an do very minimal work. I believe with these distances, the post-marathon rest can be accomplished.

So far, I am one for one having gone about 14 kilometers on the stationary bike today since it was too cold to run outside and the gym treadmill was crowded with people.

January 5, 2010

Brrrrr …. Monday was the second straight day I was unable to run after my long trip back from the Philippines. Sunday was understandable because of jet lag and the 7 degree Fahrenheit weather. Monday was still challenging because of the 17 degree weather, my desire not to go into the crowded gym with all the January New Year’s resolution gym rates who will be gone by February, and a sudden dinner invitation from relatives. Crispy pata, lumpiang shanghai, and embotido (vegetables were missing in action) won again over running.

On Tuesday evening, weather still is below 20 degrees but I will attempt to brave the gym and see the atmosphere of hundreds of people trying to get rid of the excess weight accumulated during the holidays. If I can’t get into the machine, I can at least try their indoor truck which is only 0.1 mile and makes you dizzy as hell. Therefore as of January 4, my mileage for 2010 is still a big zero.

January 4, 2010

I am planning to run the 2011 Hong Kong Half Marathon. Although no official race date is set, my guess is it will be held Sunday, February 27, 2011. For a lot of you from the Philippines, there are five great reasons to run the Marathon, Half Marathon, or 10K.

1. It is much cooler in Hong Kong than the Philippines during February. This may be a great opportunity for a PR,

2. When I was in the Philippines during December – January, I saw many great deals for a weekend HK trip starting at $220 per person including airfare and hotel.

3. Shopping

4. Eating

5. Camaraderie

This is not a formal event I am organizing but simply a get together between friends and friends of friends. We can race, eat, shop, chat, and enjoy the vibrant city of Hong Kong in February 2011. Please send me a note if you are interested and I will keep track of the list. Perhaps we can find some good restaurants aday or two before the race and get together for a noodles (pancit canton, beef mami, pancit bihon, garlic noodles, etc.) carbo loading meal before the race.

It would be great if Collezione or some other company made a technical running shirt using the ubiquitous Philippines Map design that we could use for the Hong Kong Marathon 2011. Link to the famous map shirts:

I spent the last 17 days in the Philippines. I was at 998 miles for the year before going to the Philippines. I ran a total of one time for roughly 2 miles at Subic Bay’s hilly neighborhood of Binictican heights on December 27 in order to get to 1,000 miles. Goal for 2010 is 1,100 miles.